A character invented by Plato, used in a few of his
less successful dialogs (for example, Laws).
Maybe he did it because he was tired of making
Socrates talk all the time, you know, like a
ventriloquist trying out a new dummy. In the end,
most commentators agree that it was a very lame
strategy. One thing that makes it weird is that
everybody has a name except this one guy, who
they call "Athenian Stranger" for short.